Favola

Favola is where Spice Island used to be. It has an open kitchen and looks loosely like an up-market trattoria. But the USP here is undoubtedly Roberto Boggio, the charming raconteur who is not only passionate about 'real' Italian food and traditions, especially from his native Piemonte, but also brings great drama and character to his table. He comes to each table personally and chats away to get to know his guests. He chose to impress us with dishes from Piemonte, starting with a Chicken Carpione, delicious morsels of cold chicken in a lemony sage dressing. Next, he created the famous dish from Alba, Carne Cruda All'Albese, which is raw steak seasoned with anchovy, a little garlic, lemon juice, salt, pepper and extra virgin olive oil. In the original version white truffles are shaved on top. Roberto uses a very good quality of white truffle oil instead; an extraordinarily simple dish but extremely well executed. We then had the Risotto alla Valdostana, Italian arborio rice cooked with a ragout of meat and finished off with a little red wine. We followed the risotto with one of Roberto's signature dishes, thin slices of grilled lamb with tomato marmalade. The desserts here are not to be missed. The Panna Cotta, which literally means 'cooked cream', was simply one of the best I have ever eaten. The menu at Favola goes beyond the Piemonte experience and will challenge your notion of Italian cuisine.